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Anonymous fliers ignite controversy
By Dave Frank
Collegian Reporter
"People of America and Iraq, UNITE!"
urged the April 15 issue of the Hillsdale Communist, an independent
one-page publication complete with discussion of political philosophy
and a shadowed graphic of a sickle and hammer. The paper was
left in stacks around the Knorr Student Center and other college
buildings and beside the latest issue of the Hillsdale Conservative.
Less than one week later, the New Hillsdale
Order surfaced-a publication similar in style and distribution
to the Communist but of different political persuasion. The
newsletter advocated open dissent against dorm searches and
visitation hours, citing the school's Western and capitalist
ideologies as basis for their argument.
The publication also devoted a paragraph to
attack President Larry Arnn.
"President Arnn continually takes liberty,
property, happiness and responsibility away from the students
under his supervision, but tours the country giving speeches
that show the necessity of the very rights he denies the students,"
the anonymous author wrote.
No one has claimed responsibility for either
publication.
Stacks of both issues disappeared quickly,
but many students were left wondering about the intent of the
publication.
"I thought [the Hillsdale Communist]
was funny, though I'm not exactly sure what the joke was about,"
senior Luke Morris said. "The persons who published it
apparently didn't know what communism was-they were just playing
off of outdated stereotypes of the USSR."
Freshman Stephani Deichmann, editor of the
Hillsdale Conservative, said the authors of the magazine may
have been reacting to the conservative content in her magazine.
Why the editors of the papers chose to remain
anonymous is unknown, but Provost Bob Blackstock said they needn't
fear reproductions from the school's administration.
"If students want to express some ideas-it's
college," Blackstock said. "You can't stop it and
shouldn't give it legs and life by trying. Besides, they should
be free to talk."
He said the school would only consider censoring
underground papers if they were pornographic.
Adam Goldstein, a legal fellow at the Student
Press Law Center, said Hillsdale would be within its legal rights
to censor any publication to any extent it chose.
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